DEVELOPMENT

2.2
Freedom and democracy
Martin Mölder and Vello Pettai
2.2.1
Measuring democracy and freedom
More indices have been compiled for the assessment
of the democracy, freedom and other general social
parameters than can be examined in a brief survey. The
following describes and evaluates the Estonian position
in four of the most popular indices, which all, in
somewhat different ways, map political systems, as well
as their perspectives of democracy and freedom in the
broader context. These include the two indices compiled
by Freedom House – Freedom in the World and
Nations in Transit. The first is one of the best known
indices used to measure democracy and freedom, and
is noteworthy for the number of states and the scope of
the parameters it utilises for its assessments. Nations
in Transit is somewhat more focused, and somewhat
more important for the evaluation of Estonia’s position,
since it focuses on determining the situation and
development level of democracy in the states that were
once behind the Iron Curtain. Another index that is
monitored is the Democracy Index, which appears in
The Economist, the scope of which is comparable to the
first index, and which is compiled for only four periods
during the last six years. Also Estonia’s position
in the Polity IV data series has been tracked, which
is included as an index with a relatively specific focus
on the democratic and autocratic traits of political systems,
and which includes a wide spectrum of states,
and is perhaps the most reliable and authoritative
index from a social sciences point of view.
The Freedom in the World 1 index has been compiled
almost every year since 1973, and it currently
includes 195 states and 14 disputed territories. The
index reflects the political systems of the states and
their broader functioning in society from the perspective
of liberal democracy through two dimensions –
political rights and civil liberties – which are divided
into seven sub-dimensions (the electoral process,
political pluralism and participation, functioning of
government, freedom of expression and belief, rights of
assembly and association, rule of law, personal autonomy
and individual rights). These two dimensions,
along with the seven sub-dimensions, are divided into
ten and fifteen sub-questions, respectively, which are
used to rate the states based on a five-point scale (0-4).
The corresponding assessments are first compiled
based on the seven sub-dimensions and the two main
dimensions, and thereafter, aggregated into uniform
numerical indicators, on a scale of 1 to 7. Based on
this scale, the states are, in turn, divided into the following
categories: “free” (1 – 2.5), “partially free” (3–5)
and “not free” (5.5–7). Although, as the name says,
the index measures freedom, it is essentially an index
defining liberal democracy.
Nations in Transit 2 is also an index for the assessment
of democracy compiled by Freedom House,
although its focus is somewhat narrower. The index
has been compiled since the middle of the 1990s, and
it concentrates on the assessment of the post-Communist
states that developed after the end of the Cold
War as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The
index covers 29 states and territories, starting in 1995,
and focuses on the assessment of the elections, the
media, civil societies, as well as local and national governments,
court systems and levels of corruption, from
the viewpoint of the development and consolidation of
democracy. The states are rated according to the given
dimensions on a scale of 1 to 7, and the corresponding
assessments are aggregated into a uniform measure
of democracy. Based thereon, the states are, in turn,
divided into consolidated democracies (1.00–2.99),
semi-consolidated democracies (3.00–3.99), hybrid
regimes (4.00–4.99), semi-consolidated authoritarian
regimes (5.00–5.99) and consolidated authoritarian
regimes (6.00–7.00).
The Democracy Index published by The Economist 3
has been compiled four times, to date – for 2006, 2008,
2010 and 2011. The index covers 167 states, and assesses
the status of democracy by determining the condition of
their electoral process and pluralism, the functioning
of government, political participation, political culture
and civil liberties. The Index relies on a total of twenty
questions, and based on the answers, the states are
assessed according to each dimension separately, and an
average of all the dimensions is computed on a 10-point
scale. Based on the results, the states are divided into
full democracies (8.00–10.00), flawed democracies
(6.00–7.99), hybrid regimes (4.00–5.99) and authoritarian
regimes (1.00–3.99).
Polity IV 4 currently covers 164 states, and
includes the longest period of time – from 1800 to
2010. The index, simultaneously, assesses the democratic
and authoritarian traits of political systems on
1 Available at: Available at: http://www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/freedom-world
2 Available at: http://www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/nations-transit
3 Last version available at: http://www.eiu.com/public/thankyou_download.aspx?activity=download&campaignid=DemocracyIndex2011
4 Available at: http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/polity4.htm
Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013
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